Dear Editor –

Recently, the Ontario Health Coalition ran a referendum about privatization of health care. More than 400,000 Ontarians voted to stop privatization of Ontario’s public hospitals.

It was a very impressive undertaking and it makes a strong statement – almost 3% of Ontarians felt strongly enough about this subject to vote against hospital privatization.

I encourage people to find out more here.

Evidence shows that privatization increases wait times in the public system.

The private clinics can pull doctors, nurses, and other staff from public hospitals, reducing their capacity.

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives provides evidence of ways wait times could be improved within the public system, even though some of the successful projects have been threatened or terminated.

As well, for-profit clinics try to up-sell their services, to make more money on products and services. This is for health care that is lower quality and less safe.

There is a lot of evidence of this – the most obvious is the huge difference in COVID-19 deaths in private vs public long-term care homes.

In 2020, the death rate in for-profit facilities was over 120 per 1000 beds, while the rate was 68 per 1000 in not-for-profit homes and less than 38 per 1000 in publicly-run municipal homes.

Privatization costs the government more, not less.

According to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, private, for-profit health care is more expensive because of higher administrative costs and the requirement to make a profit for investors.

Of all the provinces, Ontario spends the least per person on public services, including healthcare and education, while giving tax breaks to the richest people.

It’s not about how much money the province has, it’s about where the priorities lie.

Sincerely,

Karen Gventer